peanutspathtotruth

@Joseph Maynor Very true and important. I personally also don't resonate with him that much (yet?). Still a valid point made here I think

Deal

Wow, that's amazing, thank you so much

Do it!!

Very nice way of putting it. Thanks for the feedback

Then I confused this with someone else's statement, sorry! Thanks for the information though.

@Anna1 How do you know? I'm not saying I'm doing the method you know or how you think it works. It's actually a cessation of all methods and the letting go of intellect. Of course it comments and is still there, but "IT is still happening" supposes there is something happening. Happening depends on psychological time. This was a major recent breakthrough for me to see that breaking out of any desire is a no-method. It's beyond intellect and movement in it. That's super important and it's really hard to see because the intellect can't see how to do it. But only this way of looking is what really gets me deeper. It's easy for you to project but you have limited conceptions and experiences of what this method is for you (as do I). No attack, and I don't have to proof anything (impossible anyway ) just pointing out that this is being an assumption of yours.

This has helped me quite a bit so far but right now I have to say "this happens in the intellect" does not have to be true any longer for me. And I think neti neti has a limitation in there, as long as the intellect is involved. Only when I let go of the intellect, of the desire to discriminate or do anything, could I go deeper. But it's also important to say that this feels like a progression. First discrimination was crucial, now I see even it standing in the way. Same with the general idea of "I want to become enlightened" - very important in the beginning but huge obstacle later on. At least for me.

I remember you once said smoking is also a "good" ROA. (If I remember correctly?) Would you now say plugging is superior or smoking is too dangerous? I plan my first trip in the beginning of next year (alone at home) and out of safety reasons I just asked myself what the better method is. I like the challenge of vaporized DMT so far, although it can be quite rough. No idea what happens on 5-MeO.

That's a legit point for sure. I even did my 1 hour evening meditation yesterday only in sitting because we talked about it, neck pain became very intense. Every pain, physical and mental is very good to confront the letting go part, that is true. To me the biggest part though is about the inner resistance, and there is no external pain needed to resist the moment. We always do it, it's the inherent movement of the ego/psychology. One just has to observe and understand this. Also, since the sitting yesterday my knee is hurting even when walking which is not a good sign. I just don't want to play with my health. So I guess I will stick to my current practice of switching positions. As said, highly subjective from my experience so far, just sharing, not wanting to sound like I know what's right or wrong, I certainly don't. I wish you the best for your weekend experimentation Namaste

@Shin What? I'm not aware of SDS requiring any formal posture. Some may say so but for me this is quite ideological. I mean I have no idea if it has anything to do with the energy system of the body but primarily SDS should be there to explore your consciousness. Everything else shouldn't matter, otherwise as soon as you rise up there is this sense of you can only explore within a formal sitting. I can't even sit like this, hurting my knees big time. Even cross legged sitting is not healthy, I don't have the knee mobility. Don't think about posture, think about a long meditation session

Doing some physical yoga exercises beforehand and keeping the eyes open (at least for a bit) often helps me But I think even if there is the pain in sitting, try to push through it beyond the 30 minute mark. It will be worth it Because in the end, one could always have or get a condition in which there is constant pain. This is no reason not to go deep. I even find it a very helpful opportunity, kind of an anchor. With pain, the resistance is not that hard to spot

I never have pain in my legs cause I always switch to lying down after about 30 minutes, sometimes I do the whole hour lying down. It has its downsides but momentarily they are not departing me from the practice any longer and there mostly is no major pain. Maybe try that as well. For me, there is no real benefit of not moving an inch for the whole sitting. Sure, it has its purpose but there is also no need to torture yourself. Also, it somehow makes the practice dependent on something and I try to avoid that. Highly subjective from my side of course, that's just what helped me to do way longer sessions and they get deeper every day. Maybe I'll switch to motionless sitting one day when I handle the root cause of that neck pain.

There is nothing wrong about your focus being on the pain It's because the mind thinks it is doing the focusing. No you're not. Be okay with whatever arises, even focus wise. And I'm sure a 1 hour session would clear a lot. In the end you have to find out for yourself by practicing. Though what helped me to come to a better understanding was "The Unfolding Now" by Almaas. Highly recommended.

Whatever the focus does, I don't try to allow it nor not allow it. The only thing I would say I "focus" on is the expansion of being aware of every sensation present when I feel myself contracting my consciousness. If there is pain and focus on the pain that's fine. I don't do anything about it. Often when having much pain (for me alway my neck) I see myself not feeling it fully. In this case I just allow myself to feel what's there, no matter if pain or anything else. At some point all experience gets kind of smoothed out and there ceases the differentiation between negative or positive. But I'm honest here, this often means I have to suffer through it for a long time, maybe even the whole sitting. I just try to see what's really happening, but not as an action, just as an opening of consciousness. I know it's not well explained... It's not easy I find cause the process becomes less and less definable. Hope that helps

That would be much appreciated. Thanks for your information so far

Same for me, became much less. Nowadays I almost only listen to ambient, if so very mindfully and a few times a year I like expressing my current state of feeling free in dancing. Berlin Techno is amazing for that Always feels like an energetic release and a mindful exploration of effortless movement.

Both terms can mean something very different to different persons and where they are and how deep their understanding is. I certainly struggled a loooong long time with self inquiry because I didn't understand the process. Until I found out it's the cessation of the process. But the mind looks for "how to do it". It's not possible this way. Same thing with meditation - for me personally the only meditation that really deepens my understanding day by day is the dropping of everything. EVERYTHING. Every belief, every desire to do anything to your experience at all. Of course that's tricky because dropping in this case is not something you do. It's the stopping of doing anything. And even this stopping is no step you take. It's only through understanding how the mind works that it happens "by itself" so to speak. In this way, meditation and self inquiry merge together and are basically a dance of the same thing. When inquiring in the middle of this process, there just arises a non-conceptual curiosity. Then, without trying to do anything to this curiosity, it unfolds itself. That's only my current perspective, but the switch in what exactly I think those processes are and what I expect of them has changed everything for me.

I do the longer sessions lying down, I always start sitting for about 30 minutes, then lie down. I don't think those same problems you mentioned apply to lying down right?

When smoking weed, also on DMT, I sometimes tried to focus my awareness on this overwhelming pounding of my heart as in love meditation when I focus on the sensations in the chest area. This lead me directly to my fear of death more than once. It's not easy and it's not beautiful but this is what I actually want. I really felt like physically dying any moment, so I know what you mean. I actually could let go of the terror that was coming and this turned out to be a very deep and insightful experience. I always try to take this fear head on. But yeah, it's the fear of death, so not easy at all of course P.S.: Just to clarify, letting go of the terror first means to feel it as fully as possible. That's why it's so hard.

Yes, very important insight. Effortless effort. Letting go of wanting to go anywhere else than where you are right in this moment. When in this moment there is resistance of the moment, then trying to change that fuels the resistance even more. It's tricky, but when you see it it's so freeing. It's basically letting go of resistance on one level and seeing the other levels peel away slowly. I think that might be true. All this could be a great help for humanity. Everyone learning something here will contribute this learning to where he is. It's important though to be our own best students and not viewing this as something more special than anything else. Namaste

When you say smoking, do you mean weed? This is one of the challenges with weed - that thoughts have a very strong and dense feel to it which makes them appear way more real than when sober. That's why you really have to learn to let go. Thoughts are thoughts, no matter how real they seem. When really understood, this opens something very deep which goes way beyond thoughts and conceptual insight. It's rather easy to be stoned and follow the stream of thoughts (which might be interesting), but it's hard work in the beginning to see through the thoughts. Heart beat also goes up like crazy for most people on weed so that might explain why you falsely saw a connection between those sensations and your thoughts. Nonetheless, this might have been exactly what you needed and was a lesson in understanding your mind

Don't think too much about "getting the most out of it". This right there can be a huge hindrance to going deep in your trips. That being said, keep your meditation habit, maybe extend the time of sitting slowly and educate yourself about how to trip safely and how to deal with different states of ego games. Basically let everything be as it is unconditionally and you will see what you need to see. Don't fight ANYthing during the trip. Rather be as conscious as possible (but don't try mentally to be!). That's why the meditation habit is so important, to get a feel for what this actually means. And as Leo suggests, start low, work your way up. This way you get a sense of what you can handle and what the traps are. To me, there is also a small difference between only being aware of pure being or "actively" contemplating something like "Who Am I?". In the end I found they are both morphing into each other, but especially in the beginning it's easy to get lost in thought so be on guard

Yes, same for me, doesn't even have to be SDS, but at some point every sensation morphs into each other and it becomes the same "stuff" and (although this is not always the case) all this "stuff" has a beautiful and loving quality to it. It's amazing how simple exercising or a cold shower get when in this mode of perception. Regarding your question: The only thing I really feel helps a lot with long durations of sitting is some physical yoga/stretching. Especially twists, dead hangs, some sun salutations. I feel this is really important even without SDS.

Thanks so much for letting us know